Seppuku

Seppuku ( lit."stomach-cutting") is a Japanese word that means ritual suicide by disembowelment. Seppuku is better known in English as hara-kiri () and is written with the same kanji as seppuku but in reverse order with an okurigana. However, in Japanese hara-kiri is considered a colloquial and somewhat vulgar term. The practice of committing seppuku at the death of one's master is known as oibara (?? or ???); the ritual is similar.

Further reading

• Jack Seward, Hara-Kiri: Japanese Ritual Suicide (Charles E. Tuttle, 1968)
• Seppuku - A Practical Guide http://kyushu.com/gleaner/editorspick/seppuku.shtml
• An Account of the Hara-Kiri from Mitford's "Tales of Old Japan" provides a detailed description: http://www.blackmask.com/thatway/books162c/taja.htm
• The samurai way of death --a chapter from "Samurai: The World of the Warrior" by Dr. Stephen Turnbull http://www.ospreysamurai.com/samurai_death02.htm
• The Fine Art of Seppuku
• Zuihoden - The mausoleum of Date Masamune -- When he died, twenty of his followers killed themselves to serve him in the next life. They lay in state at Zuihoden http://www.zuihoden.com/